"He had a huge heart. A kinder person you couldn't find,"
said Mike Seelye, Wright's longtime business partner.

Wright's family on Sunday confirmed he was found unresponsive
in his condo in Ft. Myers, Fla., Saturday afternoon.

Linda Rogers, Wright's sister-in-law, said emergency responders
found Wright at about 4 p.m. and were unable to resuscitate him. It is believed
he died of heart failure, Rogers said.

Wright, 55, who until recently was a co-owner of the
Seelye-Wright Auto Group, was well known for his commercials in which he would
point to prospective buyers and exclaim, "Yes, we can!"

It was a slogan by which he lived every aspect of his life,
from his work with children in the Kalamazoo community to formerly working as
president of the Kalamazoo Kings semi-professional baseball team, and overcoming
a life nearly torn apart by a past drug addiction.

Deb Droppers, who worked with Wright at the foundation, said
Wright was tireless in his effort to help children.

"He lived his life through the eyes of the kids he
supported. He was at his happiest when he was talking to and helping those
kids," Droppers said.

The organization was known for raising money for local
non-profit organizations, like Community Healing Centers, Boys & Girls Club
of Greater Kalamazoo, the Douglas Community Association, and the Michigan Youth
Leadership Academy. The biggest Wright for Kids fundraiser is the annual Arcadia
Rockfest, a two-day festival that rakes in thousands of dollars for children's
charities.

Wright's personality was "larger than life," as evidenced by
the energy he displayed when speaking at school assemblies, Droppers said.

"He lived for those assemblies," Droppers said. "I would
never see him happier than when he was at an assembly sharing his life story."

Wright was incredibly honest about his past, from his childhood
when he was abused to part of his adult life when he abused drugs and alcohol.

It was that honesty that allowed him to speak into children's
lives, said Jim Hess, who organizes Breakfast for Champions, a breakfast club
for fifth-grade boys in Kalamazoo. Wright would speak once a year to the club.

"The enthusiasm and the way he would deliver his message
really hit home for people," Hess said. "He was really honest with the kids.
Kids can tell when people aren't real. But Bill was real."

Hess said Wright is always the favorite speaker for Breakfast
for Champions, which has featured speakers such as Derek Jeter and George W.
Bush.

Every year he would teach a lesson about going after what
you want by putting 500 one dollar bills in a bag and then throwing them in the
air, allowing the boys to grab as many bills as they could.

"He was very flamboyant and generous to a fault," Hess said.
"But he would help a lot of kids in a quiet way that no one knew about."

Droppers said Wright had a knack for finding the people who
are in need but overlooked.

"He fulfilled a unique niche in that he could identify the voids
in the community," Droppers said.

Wright's love for children extended into his work with the
Kalamazoo Kings, a semi-professional baseball team that he helped run during
its 10 years. Wright, the former president of the Kings organization, would often bring
disadvantaged children into the ballpark for free, along with homeless people
and nursing home residents, according to business partner Ed Bernard, who owned the most
stock in the Kings. The team played its final season in 2010.

Wright's desire to help abused and neglected children has to
do with his own upbringing, Droppers said. Wright was open publicly about his
childhood, growing up with abusive, alcoholic parents. He was living
by himself in a mobile-home park in Saginaw by age 14.

After working at a grocery store through high school, he
joined the staff at a Don Seelye dealership as a salesman, according to a 2004
profile in the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Through the 1980s, Wright succeeded in the car business but
during that time also battled a cocaine habit. The drug problem led to a divorce from his
first wife, and he lost custody of their sons.

"I looked in the mirror and literally saw myself in a
casket," Wright said in the 2004 article. "I was done and I didn't like how I
was going to be remembered."

Wright changed that legacy by getting clean and becoming a
partner in the Seelye automotive group in 1990. He rose to co-owner and became
well-known for his TV, radio and billboard advertisements.

Wright's
role with the car dealerships changed in early October when Mike Seelye
bought out Wright's interests in the business. The name of the car retailer
was shortened to the Seelye Automotive Group. Wright continued to oversee the operations that Seelye now has outside of Kalamazoo.

Wright had begun spending October through May in Florida,
where he would manage the car dealerships via telephone and computer, Seelye
said. He would travel back to Kalamazoo about once a month for a meeting of
store managers.

Wright had recently left for Florida after spending
Christmas in the Kalamazoo area. His wife, Ann, was going to join him in
Florida later. But when Ann attempted to call Bill several times Saturday
without reaching him, she had a friend go check on him, Rogers said. That's
when he was found unresponsive.

Friends and colleagues expressed shock at Wright's sudden
death.

"It's hard to believe that a guy who was as big as life as
him is dead," Seelye said.

But his legacy is far from dead.

Hess said Wright's slogan, "Yes, we can" -- although made
famous for selling cars -- lives on as a unifying message to the Kalamazoo
community.

"A lot of times kids are told they can't. But Bill told them
they can," Hess said. "We should let that inspire us to say that even though we
have issues, yes, we can get through it."

Wright is survived by his wife, Ann, and two sons, Logan and Kyle.

Funeral arrangements are pending with Langeland's Funeral
Home.

Aaron Mueller is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo
Gazette. Contact him at amuelle1@mlive.com or 269-568-3867.
Follow him on Twitter.